TALES OF THE V.C.
THE HUNTING HORN OF COLONEL Mill VAlluhArt CAWfbKIiL
ACROSS THE SUNKEN ROAD
(By Lieut. J. l>. Lloyd.)
On October 8, i 915, Sergeant Oliver Brooks, of the 3rd Coldstrwmi Guards, won the Victoria Cross for uus gallantry in action near Loos. Almost a. year later an officer of the oattalion gamed tlie name honour at Gincliy. 'Iho Guards' Division Ji.ul done uijgLt.y things nt loos. When next they crossed bayonets witli the Germans, it was on the Somme. On September 15, 1910, the- third stage of tho buttlo oi , tho Soinme began. For three days tho British guna had thundered all along the front, from Thiepval to Botileaux Wood. A .ight mist etili itutisj in tho valleys, when at G.'Jfl a.m. on that autumn morning the i-urtaiu of shells lifte<l and the long line of British infantry climljfcd over their parapets aud walked out into Ko Plan's Laud. On that day they marched beflido the tanks for the first time, and what the tanks accomplished on that occasion is now nn old tale.
From Moiiquet Farm to Gincliy the British were everywhere triumphant, bet in the night the Germans clung stubbornly to every yard of ground. When the 3rd Coldstrenm Guards, Liout.-Col. John Vaughan Campbell in command, went up out of their trenches agjinst tho German positions in tho outskirts of Ginchy, they mot with trouble early. From a sunken road in front tho enemy poured swi\ a heavv fire into the ranks of the attackers that for a time the whole advance was held up. Tho two leading waves suffered very severely; in fact, the battalion lost more men in this earliest stage of tho attack than wero lost during the rest of the day. Colonel Campbell, who had marched out of Gincliy with the third wave, saw that things wero going badly, and acted at once. Ho ordered tho third wave to push forward, and, taking an orderly with him, dashed across himself to the left flank, from which most of tho lire was coming. Here ho found (hat all the officers wero already casualties, and that the men were practically leaderioss. Then the battalion heard what must surely have been the strangest 6ound that ever rose above the roar of a modern battlefield. They looked and saw their colonel standing in their midst, a hunting-horn to hill lips. The magic of it fired their blood as no words could have done. The Coldstreams rose—what was left of them; there were many that wero beyond the reach of those stirring notes—and swept on, into and over the siinkon road.
But the day's work was not yet over. The sunken road was in British hands, hut two linos of German trenches still remained to he taken. Once more Colonel Campbell rallied his men round him by blasts of his horn. Once more tlio battalion marched unfalteringly Into hell. German machine-guns from "Green Trench" in front swept thoir ranks, but the colonel's wild music wne stronger than the fear of death. So they took "Green Trench," too. Tho pack was smaller now, but their master was with them yet. Beforo them lay the last and the most difficult of all. Between the Coldstreams and their goal tho grouud was thick with bursting shells, and the pitiless shrapnel beat down upon it from above. It seemed madness to attempt to cross it. To add to their troubles, until the battalion on their right advanced, a storm of ma-chinc-gun fire drove across their {rout. But, behind each a leader, they achieved the impossible.
Many times in| that short journey death came vory dose to Colonel Campboll. His coat was torn and his back bruised by flying splinters before it. was over. Yet he reached the German trench first of nil his battalion.. S'ich an onslaught wa,e irresistible. The Germans had had enough fighting for that .In.v, and shortly afterwards they began to retire towards Geudocourt. Never will the German survivors of that retreat forgot the Coldstream Guards. Never will the Guards forget tho notes of Coir onal Campbell's hunting-lioru, or his perfect leadership that day.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 201, 14 May 1918, Page 6
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687TALES OF THE V.C. Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 201, 14 May 1918, Page 6
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